Philip Rivers: Expectations high for Chargers

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on July 18, 2013, 1:12 AM EST

AP

The San Diego Chargers have missed the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. Head coach Norv Turner and general manager A.J Smith were both fired after last season and replaced by Mike McCoy and Tom Telesco in hopes of returning the Chargers to the postseason.

One member of the Chargers that remains with the team and is a pivotal piece to their playoff hopes in 2013 is quarterback Philip Rivers.

Rivers’ production has slipped over the past two seasons. He’s thrown 35 interceptions over the past two years and 2012 was his first seasons since 2007 where Rivers failed to throw for 4,000 yards. Despite the amount of turnover in the Chargers’ organization, Rivers still has high hopes for San Diego this season.

“Our expectations are high, they always are high,” Rivers said in an interview on NFL Network’s Total Access. “I think all 32 teams have the goal of winning a championship, that goes without saying. We have to get back to winning the AFC West, a thing we have let get away from us the last three years. We won about four in a row there. You have to give yourself a chance to get in the postseason.”

Rivers expressed excitement over the changes in the Chargers’ offense under McCoy and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.

“I think we can keep people off-balance and ultimately we have to go score points, score one more point than the other team. We haven’t done that enough. We have been doing it at a .500 rate the last three seasons and we know that is not going to cut it,” Rivers said.

Regardless, Rivers knows how close the Chargers came to making the Super Bowl on several occasions and knows that he won’t have an unlimited amount of chances to get there. What’s he’s seen during the offseason has him believing the Chargers outlook will be more favorable for 2013.

“We have had a heck of an offseason, a heck of a spring and I know that expectations are high,” Rivers said. “…When you start to talk about double-digit seasons you realize it not going to last forever. So enjoy the heck out of it, obviously fight like crazy to win every week like we always do, and I look forward to having a good year.”

23 responses to “Philip Rivers: Expectations high for Chargers”

My expectations are not high. I don’t like the makeup of this team and think they had a rather unspectacular offseason. I guess Rivers thinks highly of the coaching/mngmt changes, but as far as player personnel I don’t think they have a credible chance to compete at a high level.

And then he pours it on when talking about how much effort they put forth, yet when I tried just now to review their roster and transactions history I noticed multiple mistakes on both their Transactions and Roster pages. So just a pet peeve of mine, but when a professional football team with a salary of players beyond $100MM can’t even list them and notate them properly on their website, then to me that shows this team doesn’t care enough.

I know that’s ticky-tacky and has nothing to do with what happens on the field, but in my opinion it’s inexcusable and it shows who is professional and who is not, and the Chargers are not. The GM should have spot this since it takes only a few seconds to notice. But he’s not detail oriented like I am, and wow I spent a whole 2 minutes reviewing the Chargers’ offseason. What is he doing with his time that he can’t get that corrected?

Anyhow, I challenge Tom Telesco to at least make the playoffs, otherwise I will be on his case later and he can expect that. You better get the job done on the field if you can’t at least get the off the field job done. Wake up Chargers and act like a professional business, and the standards should be higher since you aren’t exactly a mom and pop shop. What’s your excuse for your sloppy website management?

Sorry guys, but I don’t cut teams with a losing track record any slack, they just don’t deserve it.

Good luck with that, Charger fans. Ken Whisenhunt’s offense regressed SO badly the last few years in Phoenix it was pathetic. Sure, there wasn’t much talent to work with, but that was largely his doing too. I wish him and the Chargers the best, but don’t have much confidence that Rivers will thrive in his offense.

Wow! You have to score more points than the other team to win. That’s deep stuff. What they need to do is get rid of Rivers and start over. They missed their window when LT left. They’ll be lucky to finish ahead of KC this year.

Well, they won 7 games last year with a more difficult schedule and an o-line that was dramatically worse than what they assembled this year. Throw in Vincent Brown, Te’o, upgraded at both CB spots, Woodhead, Allen, etc…and dumped the least creative head coach in football. They also get the luxury if beating up an awful Raider team and a Chiefs team that could only win twice last year….

Oh yeah, P.Rivers. Let me see. A guy who has sucked for a long time yet receives no criticism. Some QB’s get to suck for a veeeeerrrrrrry long time before it becomes obvious that they were never very good to begin with….

I bet McNabb would have loved to have this type support. And yes, he is a better QB than PRivers…..

Another clueless Brees post. The Chargers did not “get rid of Brees” he was a free agent and took more money elsewhere. At the time he left of his own free will (not released or traded) he couldn’t throw the ball 10 yards having just had major surgery to his throwing shoulder. The Chargers DID offer him a contract, something 29 other teams didn’t even bother to do. And then Miami pulled their off, so 30 teams didn’t want Brees. If it was such a no-brainer that he would be as good as new, if not better, where were all the other teams? Yet the clueless like to keep pretending the Chargers were idiots for “getting rid of him.”